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What's Your Measure Of Authorial Success?

3/28/2014

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Everyone has his or her own measure of success. For some that measure is the number of cars in the garage. For others it's the number of push-ups they can do under a minute. But how do you measure the success of an artist? The easy answer is to count the number of zeroes in their bank balances, but that doesn't help us much because it applies as easily to the writer as to the welder. If the purpose of art is to get others to feel, then the degree of success is whether, and how well, the artist achieves this effect.

In the same vein we'd like to share with you something that really touched us. On March 22, K. T. Bowes of New Zealand reviewed our novel, The Gullwing Odyssey, on Amazon. Ms. Bowes is a bestselling author on Amazon, with ten books to her name. While it's always a thrill to receive praise from others who've been at it longer than you have, what really moved us was this:

I absolutely loved it. I read it in hospital, waiting for my daughter to have emergency surgery and it should definitely have been harder for the author to engross me in anything -- yet he managed it.
Source: Amazon
These are the moments that make the task of writing worthwhile, when someone else says, "That part was really funny," or "I really relate to this character." But rare and special is the instance where someone says, "I was going through a tough time, and your book made me smile."

That, to us, is the measure of a writer's success. That, for us, is why we do what we do.

We would like to extend a heartfelt and sincere thank-you to Ms. Bowes, and wish her and her family strength during their difficult times.

Check out K. T. Bowes's books now available on Amazon, and be sure to visit her blog, The Library Corner, for more great reads. Her latest, Demons On Her Shoulder, published this past Sunday, is a novel of restitution and hope, demonstrating that unique and powerful human ability to build a life from the ashes of destruction, a life without emotional demons.
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Gullwing Odyssey Enters Royal Palm Literary Award Contest

3/21/2014

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Marco and friends have thrown their hats into the ring - even those who don't wear hats. Up for grabs is the Royal Palm Literary Award, presented annually by the Florida Writers Association. The RPLA is a premier awards contest, "established to recognize excellence in members’ published and pre-published works while providing objective and constructive written assessments for all entrants" according to the FWA website.

Wish us luck!



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Gullwing Odyssey Wins A Medal & Sterling Five-Star Review

3/14/2014

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See that big silver medal? That's the symbol of literary excellence the judges at Readers' Favorite affix to books given a perfect five-star rating. And it's going right on the front cover of The Gullwing Odyssey.

What does that make us? Really proud and really flattered.

Readers' Favorite is the fastest growing book review and award contest site on the Internet. It is a recipient of the "Honoring Excellence" and "Best Websites for Authors" awards by the Association of Independent Authors.

On March 10, 2014, the judges at Readers' Favorite published this sterling five-star review of The Gullwing Odyssey:

The Gullwing Odyssey by Antonio Simon begins with a case of mistaken identity that leads to a funny, tongue-in-cheek fantasy tale of epic proportions. Lead protagonist, Marco Gullwing, possesses a unique blend of talent, luck, and the blessings of the gods to get out of intensely dangerous situations that would have discombobulated, maimed, or killed lesser men during his mission to deliver a simple letter.

A fantastically diverse blend of characters, on both sides of the protagonist/antagonist fence, make for rousing entertainment and laughs galore. Mr. Simon's imaginative and humorously endowed mind is surpassed only by his superb talent in writing the English language. Parody, colloquialisms, and puns are only some of the weapons in his arsenal of wordsmith talents. His ability to create a convincing world that includes an entire kingdom of dragons with human emotions and morals, a notorious but somehow likeable pirate whose ship can fly, and a righteous giant of a knight whose religious fanaticism goes far beyond the pale are only the tip of the iceberg in the array of characters that appear in this delightful reading experience.

The Gullwing Odyssey is not, however, simply a rollicking good fantasy tale with unforgettable characters. It is also a story that illustrates examples of several human moral and immoral conditions. Within this tale, you’ll find illustrations of zealotry, subjective exploitation, religious extremism, as well as sacrifice, honor, loyalty, and love. The adventures of Marco Gullwing are sure to continue and I, for one, can hardly wait to get my hands on it. I highly recommend this book to young and young-at-heart readers of all ages; from nine to ninety-nine, you’re in for a great reading experience.
Source: Readers' Favorite. Emphasis ours.
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Check out The Gullwing Odyssey. It's a fantasy/comedy adventure of epic proportions, and not your typical swords and sorcery novel. Expect spectacular magic. Expect plenty of laughs. But above all, expect the unexpected.

This award-winning novel is now available in all ebook formats as well as in paperback, with free shipping on the latter if you purchase your copy from this site.

Want to try before you buy? Sample the first three chapters for free.

Want to meet the characters first? Check out their portraits and interviews on the author's website.

And as always, enjoy!


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Why Write?

3/7/2014

 
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Why see? Why breathe, even?

Words have power. Words build things that aren't there, flesh out people who don't exist, and make visible that which only the mind can see. They have moved the most stolid of hearts to laughter and to tears. They have fomented wars and invited peace. Words are even so powerful as to prompt feelings in us even in the absence of context. Mention "stink" and already our noses wrinkle up in disgust; mention "love" and see how our skin flushes with warmth.

Words give mass to concepts that men have suffered under, fought and died for. Words like slavery and freedom, words like revolt and injustice.

Words are timeless. Your words speak to your contemporary audience. But they also reach backward and forward in time. Backward, as you are joining that great conversation with every other being who thought to put finger to keyboard, pen to paper, quill to papyrus, chisel to tablet. And forward, because fixed words carry onward for later generations to share in the conversation.

Spoken words serve their purpose well enough, but are fleeting. They're gone the moment they're said.

Written words have permanence.

Writing them makes you immortal.

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